Okay, it's time to fess up to an embarrassing admission. I sometimes watch 'reality shows' on television. Generally, I can't be bothered and Donna has an even lower threshold for crap then I do, so we usually move up the dial and check out Animal Planet, Food Network or one of the Discovery channels. Every so often though, especially when our usual faves are in reruns we'll surf around and end up watching at least a few minutes of this phenomena.

While we had no interest in SURVIVOR, we found ourselves turning in each week for installments of ANIMAL PLANET's' "King of the Jungle", where twelve animal specialists (zoo keepers, vetrinarians, etc.) competed in physical challenges, dealing with various types of wild life and attempting to demonstrate some ability to appear 'on camera' without freezing or making fools of themselves. The winner of this competion (judged by several folks who already have regular shows on Animal Planet and the like) got to film a one hour special for the network in Africa. AP is showing the show pretty regularly in repeats, so you might want to check it out.

Another guilty pleasure, which we watch when we can, aren't really 'reality shows' as they have become known, but are shows dealing with 'real life' situations. ANIMAL PLANET has three versions of the series ANIMAL COPS each covering a different city (Miami, Detroit & Houston), plus ANIMAL PRECINCT (filmed in the five boroughs of New York City) the original show. Like COPS, the film crew travels with members of the Humane Society while they go about their day-to-day investigation of animal cruelty complaints. In New York, the A.S.P.C.A. actually has uniformed members of the NYPD attached to the unit with the full powers of the police. (Btw, yeah, Donna and I also love COPS itself, as well as John Walsh's AMERICA'S MOST WANTED.)

The reason that I'm admitting to this now is to mention that we actually watched and enjoyed Fox's newest addition to this genre, namely the perfectly titled 'MY BIG FAT OBNOXIOUS FIANCE', which premiered last night. We'd been seeing commercials for the show and we caught ourselves looking at each other, as if to see if the other appeared interested. We figured that it wouldn't hurt to check out at least the first show, and while I'm not sure that we'll plan our Monday night viewing around it, it did have enough going for it that we'll probably catch most segments.

If you haven't seen the numerous commercials for the show you can check out this article from Reuters on the show. Nicely sums it up and gives you the thinking behind it. If you need even more info you can go right over to Fox.com, then click on the "Obnoxioux Fat..." link and check things out. Oh, and just in case you're wondering, we did tune in to AMERICAN IDOL to catch the last fifteen minutes and discovered that the show was forty-five minutes last night. We also found ourselves enjoying it despite ourselves.

You can almost feel your IQ dropping a few points along the way, but it's easy to understand why so many people are tuning in and away from the dramas and sitcoms, which seem to be less interesting each and every season.